Lostprophets singer could have sentence reduced.

Thursday, July 24th, 2014

My Singing Lessons has been informed that the paedophile rockstar Ian Watkins is to hear whether he can appeal against the length of his jail sentence for child sex offences, including the attempted rape of a baby. The Lostprophets singer from Pontypridd was jailed for twenty nine years in December 2013, with another 6 years on licence. A female jailed alongside Watkins – the mother of a baby girl he abused – is seeking a drop in her 17-year sentence. The applications will be heard by 3 appeal court judges in Cardiff.

A second woman, whose child was also abused by the singer, was jailed for 14 years. Watkins, 37, originally denied all the charges against him following his arrest in December 2012 but later admitted a string of offences when the case came to court 12 months later. Detectives found a huge cache of child abuse photos and films stored on the rock star’s computers and online, almost five times the storage size of the South Wales Police force’s entire computer database.

Code-cracking experts from GCHQ were called in as part of Operation Globe to break the encryption set up by the singer to cover his traces. Sentencing Watkins and the two women at Cardiff Crown Court in December 2013, Mr Justice Royce said the case broke “new ground” and “plunged into new depths of depravity”.

Watkins admitted the attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under 13 but pleaded not guilty to rape. He also admitted conspiring to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving taking, making or possessing indecent images of children and one of possessing an extreme pornographic image involving a sex act on an animal. The two women also admitted child abuse charges.

The judge said Watkins had a “corrupting influence” and had shown a “complete lack of remorse”. Meanwhile an inquiry into whether the singer’s celebrity status prevented him from being brought to justice sooner is being held by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Gross misconduct notices have been served on seven police officers as part of the investigations into the handling of allegations against Watkins. They include three from South Yorkshire Police, two from Bedfordshire Police, and two from South Wales Police.